Traditionally, baby strollers have been used to push an infant slowly on a relatively hard, smooth floor or sidewalk. As a result, the strollers were made small and light. These strollers work well enough at slow speed, but are extremely unwieldy and even dangerous on rough surfaces or at higher speeds.
As parents have become more health conscious in recent times, jogging and fast walking has become a popular pastime. Because baby strollers were not designed to be operated at high speed or on rough terrain, parents could jog or walk fast only when another person was available to baby-sit. As any parent knows, it is not always easy to find baby-sitters, so the ability of the parent to stay in shape by jogging or fast walking was severely limited.
Even for non-jogging parents, the need for an improved baby stroller has been apparent. The small, plastic wheels customarily used for baby strollers are almost useless when it is desired to walk with an infant in a grassy park or on a rough road or sidewalk. Parents end up not walking with the infant at all or only walking in limited areas.
All-terrain baby strollers have been designed to overcome these problems. These strollers typically employ much larger wheels, often large bicycle tires. The stroller frame members are constructed of metal tubular stock and durable plastic frame connectors are used to connect the frame members together to provide the stroller with a construction that is strong enough to handle the heavy duty use they may receive. The frame connectors are used to connect some frame members to others, sometimes while allowing one frame member to rotate or pivot relative to the other, and are used to removably connect other frame members together.
It is desirable to design an all-terrain stroller so that it folds for transportation and storage, especially in the trunk of a car. The all-terrain stroller preferably folds into a very compact configuration or envelope with as small a folded size as possible to facilitate its transportation and storage. It is also desirable to have the all-terrain stroller fold easily and quickly, preferably requiring use of only a single hand so that the other hand of the user is free to perform other tasks. Additionally, it is preferred that the folding can be accomplished by persons with little physical strength or mechanical skills, and without the use of tools. Of course, it is desirable to allow unfolding without requiring tools, or great strength or mechanical skills on the part of the user. Preferably, the unfolding can be accomplished easily and quickly, requiring use of only a single hand of the user.
It is further desirable to design the all-terrain stroller so that its folded size is sufficiently small that the disassembly of wheels from the stroller frame is unnecessary, and thus their reattachment when unfolded prior to the next use is avoided. Preferably, no frame members must be disconnected from each other to fold the all-terrain stroller. Similarly, it is desirable that the folded size is sufficiently small that the folded stroller can be conveniently and economically shipped in a box without the wheels being disassembled from the stroller frame or the frame members disconnected from each other. Not only does this reduce the time and hence cost involved in preparing an all-terrain stroller for shipment by the manufacturer and its distributors, and reduce the cost of shipping, but the retail sellers of the all-terrain stroller do not have to spend time and effort assembling the stroller before sale and purchasers do not have to assemble the stroller before each use.
The present invention provides an all-terrain stroller with all of these desired capabilities and features.